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- deaper, on 10/12/2007, -13/+318And it's official. HD DVD has just won the High Def format war.
- Salviati, on 10/12/2007, -6/+234Ironically for the HD-DVD creators, this may actually ensure that HD-DVD wins the format war in the long run. Many people despise DRM, and would support it based on the fact that it has been compromised.
- krolls, on 10/12/2007, -3/+163It might be worth getting that xbox HD DVD drive now
- neuropsychguy, on 10/12/2007, -13/+109Ok, that "But will it blend?" was almost funny the first time but now is just really old.
- Sharkee, on 10/12/2007, -0/+46I can't wait to see HD-DVD Rips of movies pop up online, it'll be a hell of a download though. So long 700 megs...
- krakelohm, on 10/12/2007, -3/+46Don't both HD-DVD and BluRay use AACS?
- sh4rkb1t3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+40Suck on that, MPAA.
- SonnyW, on 10/12/2007, -4/+38Even if it can be pirated, I'm still skipping this generation.
- wolfzero, on 10/12/2007, -8/+42The FAQ:
-What is "Backup HDDVD" for?
It can do backup copies of HD DVD movies that YOU OWN! I don't want anyone to do
piracy here! This software is a good way to protect your investment, because I have
notice that this type of media seems very fragile, if it's scratched a little or
dirty, it won't play. It seems less tolerent than DVD format. (Higher density!)
-What "Backup HDDVD" is doing exactly?
This is a java based command line utility that decrypt video files (.evo) from a
HD DVD disk that you own, to your hard drive and you can play them back with a
HD DVD player software.
-What are the system requirements to use "Backup HDDVD"
1 - A Windows based system
2 - A HDDVD disk drive
3 - A HDDVD player software (like PowerDVD)
4 - A HDDVD movie(s)
5 - Java rutime 1.5
6 - The possibility to access the content of the disk with a drive letter under windows.
(you may need UDF 2.5 file system driver for this)
7 - A lot of free hard disk space to backup your movies!
-Was your first HDDVD movie hard to decrypt?
It took me around a week to do. But I have wasted few days
trying to work on too complicated approach. In fact, it is very simple.
-How do you do that?
The program itself has nothing special. It simply implement the AACS
decyption protocol. I have followed the freely available documents about AACS
Have a look at: www.aacsla.com
The trick, is to find what they call the "Title keys". So I figure out how to
extract them.
-How do you extract the "Title keys"?
I won't explain it in detail. Read the AACS doc first. You will understand.
The title keys are located on the disk in encrypted form, but for a
content to be played, it has to be decrypted! So where is the
decrypted version of the title key? Think about it...
-What kind of crypto algorithms are involved?
Standards algorithms:
ECC-160
AES-128
Look in the AACS doc for more details.
-What is the TKDB.cfg file?
This is the Title key Database file. It holds the decryption keys for the movies.
-What is the format of this file?
Field 1: SHA1 Hash of the VTKF000.AACS file on your HDDVD disk.
Next fields are pipe "|" delimited.
-Movie Title
-A variable number of Title key, pipe delimited
You have a key number followed by the key value like:
12-08A3DC61910280F2...
Key values are 128 bits long, so 16 bytes, or 32 hexadecimal characters long.
-The TKDB.cfg file provided with your program is empty or incomplete, what can I do?
Well, you are on your own.
-What do you think of the technical aspects of AACS?
The design is not that bad, but it's too easy to have an insecure player
implementation somewhere. And just one bad implementation is all it needs
to get the keys! There will always be insecure implementations
of a player somewhere! And the "Revocation system" is totaly useless if you use
the Title key directly.
-Is there any known problems with the decryption?
Yes. I call this problem the "Nav chain" bug. I realize that I have a lot of
frame skipping at playback after the decryption, so I hunted down the problem.
To avoid the frame skipping, I patch the video file.
This fix allows smooth playback of the movie, but there are some side effects.
-What are the side effects of the "Nav chain" bug fix?
You cannot do fast forward, or backward using the round dial, but you can still
use the progress bar to navigate through the film. So it's not that bad...
For some reason, the sub-titles don't seems to work anymore.
It may be a side effect of the nav chain bug. But may be not...
-Why the "Nav chain" bug is called the "Nav chain" bug?
Well, it has something to do with the chaining of navigation pack.
Look at some doc about standard DVD VOB file, you will see.
If someone wants to help me with that bug, please do!
-Are you going to support Blu-Ray?
I don't own a Blu-Ray drive!
-Do you plan to do a user interface version?
No, other people will do. You have the source code, so enjoy it!
-Do you plan to do a Linux version?
See the previous answer.
I don't use any windows specific API and this is a java application!
A port to Linux will be easy.
-Can you send me some decryption keys? PLEASE!
No.
YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oZGYb92isE - jcaino, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31for damn good reason.
this is great news to people that like to back up their legitimately owned movies. - RevMark, on 10/12/2007, -1/+31I would not be supprised if the HD-DVD Consortium released the hack into the wild themselves to ensure that they win the Hgh Def DVD wars.
- synapseattack, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26"Something tells me that the author of this program will be deep underground in some windowless jail cell before he can make the January 2 release."
The Source Code is out. It is on the net. They can not put that genie back in the bottle. They can lock up one programmer and 10 more will take his place. Let them try to stop it. It will get funny as they fluster. - nullptr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+23AACS has not been "hacked". The author's source code simply implements the decryption algorithm (documented, no black magic here).
The only thing of interest is the fact that he extracted the title keys, which he almost certainly obtained by poking around in PowerDVD's memory space.
The proper title for this post is (probably) "AACS Title Keys Extractable from PowerDVD".
Now, if the title keys can be obtained and distributed en masse (100,000 titles would require only a few megabytes even with title metadata), then AACS is certainly ineffective, but it's incorrect to say that it is "cracked" or "hacked". Nothing here will lead to a libdeaacs.so that could operate in the absence of a key database. - cecil_t, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21@brooklynboy
Maybe you missed it, but you can hook up the Xbox 360 HD-DVD players to a PC directly via USB, so no, you don't need to buy the Xbox 360. You can just spend the $200.
http://www.pcw.co.uk/personal-computer-world/features/2170703/xbox360-hd-dvd-pc
http://uneasysilence.com/archive/2006/11/8303/ - generalleoff, on 10/12/2007, -8/+27A format war implies you can go to the store and buy the same content on multiple formats. You can't do that with HD-DVD and BlueRay therefore there is no format war between the two. Half the studios use one and the other half use the other. If you pick one over the other you only get half the movies so both will succeed or both will die. The solution to the "problem" on the consumer end is a multi format player. If I have a player that can play both I really could not care less what brand of disc it is. It will be completely transparent to me.
- TheWriteGuy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19Ironic that the format which gets its DRM cracked the first could become the winning Hi-Def format. Makes me wonder if the HD-DVD consortium helped to leak this hack out, as the timing seems appropriate (soon after the release of the PS3). :-)
- deaper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17You probabbly won't see too many HD-DVD rips showing up in xvid format because xvid sucks with high res content. You'll likely see x264 encoded content wrapped in MKV's. And they're going to be larger than the 700 meg xvids for sure. But probabbly compressed enough to fit them onto a regular dvd eventually.
- P5ycHo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16"Something tells me that the author of this program will be deep underground in some windowless jail cell before he can make the January 2 release."
Not everyone lives in the US with it's coldwar eastern germany laws. - deanlowe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17I'll wait until there are cheap HD-DVD/BluRay blanks.
- logophilus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Engadget links to this doom9 post. This post is the original.
- aristotle0dude, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18The DCMA does not mean ***** outside of the US.
- pipdip, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20Any word on converting one of these movies to Xvid or something? Obviously uncompressed is way too big but I'd love to see some HD movies in Xvid without any tags.
- craterburnsu, on 10/12/2007, -16/+32@Salviati
It's not necessarily about the people supporting it. It's the Studios. People only buy things they want, and if the studio who makes their favorite movies sees that HD DVD can be pirated, they may just chose to only publish on BluRay, which means the consumer will HAVE to buy Bluray if they want their favorite movie in HD. - Phil246, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17@inkhead, has someone forgotten to take their valium today?
Seriously, calm down a bitty eh? - sumiguchi, on 10/12/2007, -9/+24That'll be the nail in the blue ray coffin.
- Vektuz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13So basically, this program needs the "title keys" (a unique key for every released DVD title) to rip that specific title, or "Volume Keys" which can apparently decrypt lots.
However, the "Title Keys", when you insert a HD-DVD and start playing it, are stored in the readable memory of your computer, since your computer needs them in order to decrypt the DVD for you to see it.
So it won't be long before a program will be out there that simply hooks into the DVD player and rips title keys.
Followed by a Title Key database (hooray for web 2.0) online. - Elranzer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13It's a good step but I'll wait for HD-DVD Shrink.
- Chordonblue, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13"The DCMA does not mean ***** outside of the US."
Technically, you are correct, realistically the DMCA has directly affected the copywrite laws written in most countries. See the EU and Australia for excellent examples. It's almost like they pulled the language word for word in spots.
The Hollywood lobby is VERY strong, strong enough to influence laws worldwide. In fact, digital entertainment media appears to be the U.S.'s number one export now. Think our government wants to lose out on all that revenue? As usual, it all comes down to the almighty dollar. - wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13While not of great practical use right now, this is clearly a first step. And supposedly, these keys were supposed to be unique, so that if a studio's keys were to be cracked (like this, for instance) the rest of the AACS crew would fine them. Still, though, I do share the sentiment above, although not elequent, it certainly expresses the correct thoughts:
Suck it, MPAA. - writerboyVSgod, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13You can almost imagine the board room. The lead security expert standing in front of the long glossy black table with two rows of $1000 suit wearing old white men.
"And in closing, gentlemen, I assure you with no reservations that there is no way AACS will ever be broken. It is simply not possible." - Garda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12wow, that didn't take long
it doesn't really matter if it's particularly difficult, if it's possible it means that cheap pirated disks are going to become available on the black market so this is still very significant - razordancer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10@pipdip
I was wondering about this myself. I did some asking and my friend said that compressed 720p movies are usually DVD5 size, 1080p are DVD9 sizes, with the rare 1080p 'release' that hits 11-12 gigs. Most of these releases use the .mkv container and h.264. - Salviati, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12@craterburnsu
Your point is valid too, but keep in mind that the players have already been available for a while, and HD-DVD already seems to have an advantage. It is much cheaper for people to buy a $200 add-on HD-DVD player for their XBOX360 (which has already been modded for regular computers) than to get a $500+ Blueray player. If enough people get the HD-DVD drives just to experiment with the hack, it may tip the scale (considering the apparent flop of the PS3 so far). - nunofgs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9"BackupHDDVD is a tool to decrypt a AACS protected movie that you own"
Guess it won't work for me then... - Athens101, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9You know I was just thinking how long until we see a OSS HD-DVD linux player. :)
- gummih, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Almost as strong as two swedish geeks at the pirate bay even?
And the dollar is dead - sorry. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8So I wonder how soon we can expect an update from SlySoft. Hmmm...
- pkenjora, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Wow, that took longer than cracking the PSP format. The boys in Russia are getting rusty.
- HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Yeah. Nothing will convince the 4 content producers who support BluRay and not HD-DVD to switch to HD-DVD more effectively than the lure of their content being easily stolen.
Common sense is a rarity on Digg. - AnotherBrian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Re: HappyScrappy
But then the program just reads the new key from what ever playback software is installed or it could retrieve the key from an online database that will be created in 5.. 4.. 3.. - pintomp3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7guess i'll have to get FIOS soon.
- ronjohnson, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Look out ISP's time to invest in some bandwidth shapping software. Who makes that stuff anyway, I want to buy some stock?
- usernameistaken, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Seeing as to how that link was posted later, that would make that link the duplicate and this story the original submission.
- kronix2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8There's no credible argument to deny users the right to decrypt AACS. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs cannot be played back at actual HD resolutions on a HD monitor without a HDCP compliant graphics card, despite there being no actual technological requirement for one beyond restricting consumers' rights. Even without that limitation, people are morally entitled to back up their own films. If I break my disc, why should I pay full price for something whose physical materials are worth £1?
Now, if only the law agreed with me. In the UK, it's legal to rip music from your own CDs regardless of any DRM - meaning the law doesn't prevent you from cracking or circumventing DRM. As far as I'm aware, the same rights don't extend to films.
***** you, MPAA. - DigitAl56K, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7It makes no difference, he already released the source. It's all over.
- AnotherBrian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think the point it that it reads the title key from the disk and gets the device key from whatever HDDVD playback software installed.
This is the reason why DRM will always be crackable, the audio/video files may be encrypted but the key MUST be available to the the playback client and intercepting it is only a matter of discovering what memory address it's hiding in. - streetstealth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I don't really care that much about backing up right now as I do about not having to play the MPAA's disgusting HDCP game.
My monitor displays 720p just fine. If we see this hack rolled into a VLC plugin in 2007, the studios may yet sell me a few HD titles. - HappyScrappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The HDCP requirement is enforced by software. If you "crack" the protection, you can bypass that. that is one of the things the studio doesn't want to happen.
Honestly, they should care, because it will be possible to rip the discs (both formats) long before recoding HDMI to disc and recompressing it becomes cost effective and commonplace anyway. - sdbryan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"ALL MAJOR STUDIOS will jump ship to BD only. Its bad enough for them that all released HDDVD titles are compromised, if Toshiba doesn't revoke the keys then HD-DVD is dead."
Right. Just like DVD-video was doomed after it was cracked because there was no way anyone could make money selling DVDs. (That is, of course, understood to be sarcastic). Just because some dimwitted studio executives think that sprinkling fairy dust encryption on a format is required for success in the market doesn't mean that fantasy has any significant relationship to reality. What this development might mean (if it is as effective as DeCSS) is that people will be more comfortable buying HD-DVD's than BluRay because they can be backed up to hard drives that will continue to increase exponentially in size for a given price.
Unlike laserdisc and VHS which will often (always?) degrade over time and provide something less than an optimum viewing experience in any case with better, larger screens, we already have DVD's that can be digitally backed up so you only have to get newer formats if you want higher resolution or new features. Before this development the higher resolution formats were unnecessarily tied to a fragile piece of plastic unlike DVDs. Maybe this will help HD-DVD escape the fate of SACD and DVD-Audio which are its audio counterparts that have failed to displace audio CDs. In any case this settles it for me: I'll only be buying HD-DVD's. Sony and the studios that stick with their BD standard can go pound sand. DVD quality is good enough for titles that are BD only.
[Of course if DVD Jon cracks AACS wide open (as he has implied he will) then that will remove the onus from BD.]
Incidentally it is probably worth mentioning that the original rationale behind copyright was a deal between publishers and lawmakers to encourage publication to enrich the public domain. Protection from other publishers, ie a temporary monopoly, was provided for a legislated period so that after that period the work would enter the public domain. If the method of publication involves encryption then if it were successfully executed it would preclude a work ever entering the public domain. Why should copyright apply at all to publishers who try to rob the public domain? -
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